Richard Reynnells

Biography

Richard Reynnells
August 21, 2014

Richard earned the BS, MS and PhD degrees in Poultry Science, and in 1979 began work in the Extension Poultry Science Department, University of Georgia.  He was stationed in Statesboro as the primary specialist for poultry programs in Southeast Georgia, but had statewide responsibilities.  His work was with production aspects of table eggs, broilers, and game birds.  He also assisted in training 4H students.

In 1985 he became the National Program Leader (NPL) for Poultry Science and Fur-bearing Animals at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, DC.  In this role he acted as a liaison between USDA, the industries, and universities to help define issues or problems in the poultry system.  He then provided leadership to create solutions or otherwise attempted to address problems.  For example, he created teams of poultry system personnel to develop national programs such as symposia to provide  mechanisms to deal with specific issues.  Teams having diverse philosophical backgrounds were used to develop symposia on animal welfare issues.  Richard’s areas of responsibility for USDA included animal welfare, environmental issues, food safety, organic, and 4-H.  He also worked on overseas assignments such as development of an Extension poultry program in Tianjin City, PRC, and assisted in a regional environmental research center at the National Pingtung University for Science and Technology in the ROC.

After USDA merged the Extension Service and Cooperative State Research Service to create the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES), his responsibilities were modified.  In CSREES, his programs included all food animals.  Examples of other CSREES duties were leadership for Land Grant University department reviews, and grants.  His title was also changed to NPL Animal Production Systems.  CSREES later became the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.  He retired January 1, 2012.